


Laughter Lines

by ContrivedChaos



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: But Nadine knows she cares, Chloe can be a turd, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, F/F, Feels, Fluff, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 12:53:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13365123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ContrivedChaos/pseuds/ContrivedChaos
Summary: Nadine Ross has always been pretty mum about her past, but when the opportunity arises for Chloe Frazer to learn more, she may have to get creative to find answers.





	Laughter Lines

“Oh fuu—god damn shit!”

Chloe is jostled out of perusing an outdated issue of National Geographic at the sound of something solid hitting the doorframe leading into the room. From the treasure hunter’s upside-down vantage point on the edge of the couch, all she initially sees is a phantom box floating upon a pair of legs clad in sweats, hippity hopping into view as Nadine lets loose a string of colorful expletives.

“You all right, love?” She smirks at Nadine’s choice of words, but the tone in Chloe’s voice hints at more concern than amusement at the former PMC leader’s injured foot, which Nadine nurses in her palm as soon as she can safely drop her cargo onto the floor nearby.

“Yeah—shit—just kicked the door,” Nadine confirms, seating herself next to Chloe on the couch and bending her knee to bring her battered toes up to her lap for closer inspection.

Chloe is still getting used to seeing Nadine in pajamas. She’s traded khakis for a pair of sweatpants, muscle shirt for a regular tank top, and military grade combat boots for a pair of blue calf-length socks with toes. Chloe would be lying if she says she doesn’t appreciate the more casual side to her partner. She would also be lying if she says seeing the younger woman with her hair down, as it were, isn’t also extremely distracting.

“Want me to kiss it better?” Chloe asks with enthusiasm, lips puckered and only half kidding as her face suddenly resembles a fish. As usual, her teasing doesn’t go unnoticed, as a hint of a blush ghosts at the edge of her partner’s cheeks. But also as usual, Nadine quickly composes herself and doesn’t immediately accept the offer.

“I know you think you’d like that, Chloe, but trust me, that’s the last thing you want to do.” To Chloe’s dismay, Nadine is getting better at hiding her flustered state as a result of the Australian’s incessant flirting. However, Chloe isn’t one to turn down a challenge, especially where her partner is concerned.

“Try me, china,” Chloe insists, eyebrows raising and smirk tilting upward in an open invitation, if ever Nadine has seen one. There’s that shit-eating grin she’s come to appreciate. Nadine chuckles low in her throat, momentarily hesitating. But the former Shoreline leader doesn’t usually turn down a challenge, either, so she meets Chloe’s gaze and makes the most reasonable decision given the circumstances.

“All right then. Have at it, Frazer.” Uncrossing her knee, Nadine shoves her socked foot right into the treasure hunter’s face. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

For once, Chloe is surprised when a combination of Essence of Nadine and cheap cotton blend applies itself directly to her cheek. Not one to be outdone by a mild case of B.O., the indomitable Chloe Frazer turns sideways to recline across one of the couch’s arms, bringing Nadine’s foot along for the ride to make good on her promise. The dark-skinned woman is forced into a position mirroring Chloe’s, and she slides further down to rest on the opposite arm as her partner goes to work.

“You’re absolutely disgusting, Frazer,” Nadine chortles as Chloe directs an affectionate smooch to Nadine’s clothed ankle, continuing her attention further up the appendage than Nadine would normally find acceptable. Shuddering slightly as the treasure hunter gets frustratingly close to the back of her calf, Nadine marvels at her own reaction to such a gesture through a layer of fabric. But she is too late to conceal her blush from her partner’s painstaking gaze, and any hope to go unnoticed dissipates.

“And you’re adorable, love.”

Knowing when to call it quits on her teasing is a skill Chloe hasn’t quite perfected in the months they’ve been working together. But being mindful of her partner, the older woman resigns herself to gently massaging the remarkably tender ball of muscle at the bottom of the former commander’s foot. The result is instant, and Nadine seemingly oozes into the fabric of the couch, eliciting a moan at feeling just the right amount of pressure.

“It appears I’ve found the right button,” Chloe jokes as she places even more emphasis on the space between each of Nadine’s extended toes. Nadine has to agree, as her choice in footwear provides Chloe’s fingers unfettered access to the sensitive nerve endings between each one. She thoroughly enjoys the attention, even if she barely manages to avoid voicing it.

Distracting herself, and dispersing the rest of the scurrying ants in her chest, Nadine remembers why she came into this room in the first place. Taking in the large number of boxes populating her previously sparse studio apartment, her attention diverts to the floor and the previous offender she had shown enough foresight to place closer to the couch. Thankfully, the box is open and untaped, and she can easily reach down to pilfer through the contents without moving from her current position.

She doesn’t remember ever owning this much….stuff, for lack of a better word. When she and Chloe agree to become partners, they decide to take turns crashing at each other’s places, using each location as a halfway point to collect their strength and make plans from one job to the next. But as Chloe’s visits to her flat are more and more commonplace, Nadine’s minimalistic lifestyle becomes harder to ignore.

Refusing to be a bad host, Nadine decides to have the rest of her belongings delivered from her family home. It’s not much of a solution, but having only a bed, a table, and a ratty old couch in the corner just doesn’t cut it for two people. Since moving in herself, she hasn’t even bothered to put anything in her closet, and a heavy-duty trunk is all that contains her current collection of clothing, shoes, and various other assets.

Chloe insists that any effort to impress her isn’t necessary, but self-consciously, Nadine wants to liven up the place, and make her flat feel more like a residence, a home, than just a temporary base. The sheer number of items to sift through, however, is unexpected, and might take longer than she originally intends. Reluctantly, Nadine reaches down to begin to take stock of the items within her current proximity, and after realizing what she’s found, discovers that she regrets the decision almost immediately.

If the meticulously labeled envelopes in what appears to be her father’s scratchy handwriting are any indication, there are several things in this box, and consequently the others, that she must definitely, absolutely, keep out of Chloe’s hands at all costs.

Not being conspicuous at all, Nadine leans down farther to gather a bundle of the aforementioned envelopes, some of the manila variety with hand-written monikers, and others clearly branded with “24-Hour Photo” on the front that look as if they came straight out of a bygone era. Nadine quickly shoves as many as she can beneath the couch in one swift motion, under the misinformed assumption that she’s being discreet. Her attempt is obvious to Chloe, with the way she uses her shoulder and arm to try and hide what she’s doing from the woman sitting literally right next to her.

Chloe is well aware and doesn’t miss a beat. More importantly, she is very willing to play along if her partner thinks she can pull a fast one on her.

“Nadine Ross, are you hiding something?”

Nadine knows she’s been found out when her partner uses her full name rather one of her chosen terms of endearment. Nadine confirms the answer to Chloe’s question when she doesn’t make eye contact or respond at first, and chooses instead to shove the box even further away. Only then does she turn back around to resume being at the receiving end of a relaxing foot massage.

As if she didn’t just try to pull the wool over my eyes, the cheeky wench, Chloe thinks to herself, barely hiding a grin. This woman really is fucking adorable.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Nadine insists with what resembles complete apprehension. But hints of panic are clearly evident in her posture and freckled liberally across her face. Thoroughly enjoying herself, Chloe can keep playing this game as long as it takes.

“Well, it appeared that you may have found something you didn’t want me to see. Or so I gathered by how quickly you covered it up.”

Nadine doesn’t acknowledge her statement and proceeds to shove her foot back into the palm that Chloe has let fall into her lap. While Nadine’s attempts to distract her from her task don’t cease to be cute, at this specific moment, Chloe is much more interested in getting to the bottom of this envelope situation than her partner’s foot.

Holding Nadine’s gaze, and her preoccupied foot, Chloe slowly leans forward as if to make for the mystery still inhabiting the space beneath them. Chloe prides herself on being fast, but unfortunately, not as fast as a certain highly trained mercenary who is prepared to grab her wrist right before it makes contact with her heavily guarded secrets.

“Chloe…”

“Yes, Nadine?” Her question is innocent enough, but now her partner’s expression indicates something far more sinister. It sends a shiver of anticipation down Chloe’s spine, and a tremor of other things elsewhere.

“If you don’t let this go, I’m going to make you regret…”

“You and what army?”

The irony of Chloe’s retort surprises Nadine, her grip slackens, and Chloe is afforded the opening to thrust her upper body from the couch to grab the telltale edge of an envelope from the depths below. This time, she is fast enough, and hastily transfers her prize to the hand not currently held captive by Nadine’s. Immediately, she shoves the contents behind her back, arching back into the cushions and holding the envelope hostage under the weight of her own body as she waits for Nadine’s reaction.

Chloe already knows she is strong. Her partner’s ability to drag her up the side of a cliff one-handed is testament to that. But the thief hasn’t yet needed to consider what it’s like being at the critical end of Nadine’s military-grade scrutiny.

Until now, that is. She and the former leader of Shoreline initiate an all-out brawl on top of Nadine’s already tattered couch. Trying to get her hands beneath the thief’s body to snatch back the envelope, Nadine’s efforts are thwarted by Chloe’s constant shifting and bending to block her hands. Nadine grabs the older woman, wraps up her torso in a bear hug that plasters Chloe’s arms to her sides like a vice, holding her in place and preventing her from leaning into her questing hands. Chloe squeals and squirms like a worm on a hook in an attempt to break free.

“Nadine!” Chloe gasps as she tries breathing around the pressure of the other woman on her chest. The warmth of her breath blasts Nadine in the face, and both women struggle to gain the upper hand. To Nadine’s surprise, Chloe giggles like a mad man.

“My god, you’re strong, china,” she says with a throaty laugh and a few violent twists of her shoulders. “Good—ugh—thing you’re usually on my side!”

Nadine grunts with the effort to hold Chloe still as she bucks upward again, but can’t manage to hold back a laugh herself.

“Ja, I am! You done fighting me?”

With as much confidence as she has in her own skills as a thief, Chloe is still not opposed to taking whatever advantage she can. And with both Nadine and the most obvious solution to her current predicament literally staring her in the face, Chloe makes the only logical choice.

She leans upward and presses her lips directly to Nadine’s, and as the former mercenary finishes processing the surprise and acquiesces, both women sink into the motion with soft moans and indiscriminate sighs. Nadine’s grip on Chloe’s form actually gets lighter, and she slowly moves one arm up to cradle the back of the thief’s head in her hand.

But as previously established, Chloe isn’t afraid to play dirty, so their truce doesn’t last long. Nadine finds herself falling face first into the couch as Chloe breaks from her grip and rolls swiftly out from under her, taking the prized envelope and bolting away like the cat burglar that she is.

“Fucking—Frazer!”

“Not now, love. Maybe later?”

Nadine takes a swipe for her leg and misses. Chloe cackles in a manner that would make the Wicked Witch of the West proud and scrambles to her feet. She books it to the other side of the room, swinging around behind the kitchen table and daring Nadine with cockiness and pride in her eyes to come get her.

“You insufferable little…”

“Did you say something, love? I can’t hear you over the sound of this paper crinkling.”

To Nadine’s horror, Chloe bends the metal clasp on the manila envelope to open it. The former solider bulldozes the side of the table, reaches across, but doesn’t manage to steal back her secret before Chloe twirls sloppily out of the way like a heavily medicated ballerina. They play Ring Around the Rosie with the table for several seconds, neither willing to be the first to move away from its sanctuary. Chloe knows she is at a serious disadvantage in this game of chicken, and she’s loving every minute of it. But she needs to make a move very soon, or she’s going to lose.

Chloe Frazer doesn’t lose.

Instead, she makes the second most logical decision of the evening and pours the mystery contents out of the open envelope and onto the table in one fell swoop. Nadine utters a sound that Chloe’s never heard from a human before, but she can’t concentrate on it long enough in light of the utter majesty that now lies in front of her.

“Baby pictures!!!”

“Jesus fucking Christ!”

The mere idea of what she’s seeing is so alien to Chloe that it takes her a moment to process it. Of course Nadine was a baby, and then a child, and then a teenager once. But Nadine. Nadine Ross. As a teenager. As a child. As an INFANT. Needing to be fed and dressed and cuddled and burped and changed, among other very necessary things. Learning to read and write and draw funny pictures. Learning to drive. Learning to fight.

She’ll all be go to hell, but that’s an awful lot for a girl to absorb in one sitting.

Surprisingly, Nadine doesn’t try to cover up the evidence of the many stages of her life that she has lived prior to meeting Chloe. She wonders what the point is at this juncture in fighting it. It makes sense that once they start living together, something like this is inevitable. Looking dejected and almost a little too adorable for Chloe to stand, her head dangles from her shoulders in defeat, and she pulls out a chair to take a seat and prepare for a barrage of questions and/or teasing from her amused partner.

But Chloe doesn’t speak at first, beyond her initial outcry regarding her discovery. She’s too busy spreading out the rest of her treasures across the table, categorizing and organizing Nadine’s every life phase by age and activity. As if an entire person could be contained in these photos, but here she is doing just that.

There’s Nadine sparring with what looks to be her father. Nadine petting and feeding a pair of horses. In fatigues sitting on an armored car. Reading a book under a tree. In a high chair smeared with cake. Playing with a gaggle of little friends. Coloring a picture of a giraffe.

All of the images appear to be from a different universe, a different lifetime, and the person Chloe sees now is so different from the person she was then.

One photo in particular catches Chloe’s attention, one of Nadine covered in scrapes and bruises, she assumes, based on the bandages covering her little face, hands, and arms. She can’t be older than 6 or 7 in this one, Chloe thinks. Next to Nadine in the photo sits a rather impressively sized tortoise or turtle (Chloe can never tell the difference) with a noticeable chunk chipped out of the front of its shell. It looks old and wise and has probably been in more than a few scraps with others of its kind. Comically, the reptile is also covered head to tail with bandages plastered all over its shell. And even, she notices, some flower stickers.

Nadine sees the photo that has Chloe enraptured, and with an audible sigh, decides to save herself some embarrassment by volunteering to explain.

“I saw the tortoise was hurt and thought I’d….help it feel better,” Nadine admits with a chuckle. Her hands are wringing faster than a telephone. “Then I didn’t want it to feel self-conscious, so I….bandaged myself up, as well.”

Chloe snickers. She has to cover her mouth with her hand and literally bite her tongue not to be a dickhead. Heaven help her, she is trying really, really hard not to tease Nadine to death, but it is so, SO difficult. It goes against literally everything Chloe is, because her partner is just so completely honest and raw and adorable. She can barely stand it.

Instead she says what any normal person would say when their associate proves herself to be a hopeless sap.

“So it’s a tortoise? I can never tell the difference.”

Nadine fully embraces the change of subject, and Chloe witnesses the tension in her shoulders drop about five stories.

“Tortoises live on land, turtles primarily live in water. Also, turtles usually have smooth, flat shells. Tortoise shells look like a rigid dome.”

Nadine even does this particular motion with her hands to indicate the shape she’s talking about. Once again, leave it to Nadine Ross to be the gatekeeper of every piece of random knowledge that exists pertaining to animals. Nadine knows the look Chloe is giving her and decides to finally qualify this habit of hers with a response.

“As a kid, I wanted to be a wildlife biologist….or a veterinarian. Stupid, right? Pop never approved for….reasons related to my decision to take over Shoreline.”

Chloe looks at her inquisitively, as if this isn’t the most obvious thing Nadine has ever revealed about herself. She sees no more fitting job for Nadine now that she knows the marshmallow person living underneath the gruff, burned exterior. Somehow it seems far more suitable that the former mercenary always wanted to do something greater than command an army for hire.

“Why didn’t you?”

Nadine’s face falls like rain at her inquiry, and she struggles to conjure up the words from memory and release into the atmosphere what she hasn’t had to think about in years.

“My father had a very….particular skill set. He trusts no one and wanted to keep the business in the family at all costs. He taught me from an early age how to defend myself and how to do whatever it takes to survive. So when he was looking to retire, that responsibility….sort of fell to me. I was his last chance. His last shot at not losing his life’s work and leaving a legacy.”

Nadine chuffs and visibly frets within her seat. She hasn’t made eye contact with Chloe for the last several sentences, but that changes when she looks to her partner for validation.

“How do you say no to the person who raised you, hey?”

Chloe worries her bottom lip at the edge of her teeth. She can’t say she’s surprised at what she’s hearing. Somehow it makes sense that Nadine would want to continue in her father’s footsteps and give up literally everything to make it happen. Make him proud, as it were. She is strong, capable, and has a spirit like fire and an energy like wind. Still, she thinks it’s so unfortunate that her human encyclopedia’s childhood dreams had been overshadowed by the mere circumstances of her birth.

But then again, at the first opportunity to take back what she ultimately lost, Nadine chooses instead to stay with her, make a life with her, and that notion fills something inside of Chloe that she doesn’t even realize was empty.

Chloe smiles despite herself. How is she so lucky?

“Did your dad take the photo?” Chloe asks with mild curiosity, trying to change the subject.

“My brother,” Nadine says without an ounce of concern that she’s just dropped another nuclear bomb in Chloe’s lap with the realization that she isn't an only child. “He and I liked to joke around, and he always supported my love of animals.”

Chloe wants to focus more on the first thing, because that is actually news to her.

“Wait, you have a brother?!”

“I have four brothers, actually.”

Chloe cannot believe what she is hearing. Somewhere out there in the wild exists four other complete persons sharing relatively the same genetic makeup as Nadine, and this is the first she’s hearing of it. Man, but if it hasn’t been a strange but enlightening day, to say the very least.

But then a thought occurs to Chloe, and the implications of it legitimately make her angry. “Hold the phone, love. If your father had four other children, why on earth didn’t they take over Shoreline? Why was that all on you?”

Nadine shrugs but continues to shift in her chair sheepishly. “Pop assumed one of his sons would eventually take over. It was the most logical thing at the time. But one by one, they just grew up and….didn’t. They moved on with their own lives. Like I said, I was his last shot. I’m the youngest. I didn’t have much of a choice.”

“There’s always a choice, darling,” Chloe says, voice soft and hands gesturing between the two of them with more affection than she probably intends. Actually, she intends every bit of it, and then some. “Point being why we’re here. And also, your fondness for me, of course.”

“Esh!” Nadine blushes profusely, not able to make eye contact with Chloe again and rubbing the back of her head to keep herself grounded. How does this woman get her flustered so easily? But despite how easily she falls into this pattern, she’s not too nervous to give in to Chloe’s playful bantering once in a while. “You’re all right, I guess.”

Chloe shoots Nadine an appalled look, like she’s just heard the most offensive thing imaginable, hand flying to her chest in defense and eyes wide in mock disgust.

“Oh, ouch. That hurts. Really, love, I’m wounded. Way to kick a lady in the balls.”

For the first time that evening, Nadine really laughs out loud, an honest-to-goodness guffaw complete with clapping hands and nearly falling out of her seat. The sight is one Chloe can never see enough but hopes to see many more times, and for many more years, in the future.

Chloe pulls her phone out of her pocket and positions the special photo she’s discovered on the table just so. Opening her camera app and taking a quick snapshot, the fleeting memory of a Nadine she’s never met, but feels like she’s known forever, is again immortalized on her device.

“What was that for?” Nadine asks.

“Just wanted a copy of my own,” Chloe confirms, and then with a grin, “And for potential blackmail purposes later.”

Nadine stands, smirk spreading from cheek and cheek, stance widening, and arms coming up in front of her to pull together a complete but fake fighting stance. She really is the whole package, Chloe thinks.

“You wanna go?”

“Like I could ever win in a fair fight against you!” Chloe hoots. “But maybe if I threatened to show Nate and Sam what a teddy bear you really are, you’d go easy on me.”

“You wouldn’t dare, Frazer!”

“Wouldn't I?”

Chloe repeats her Elphaba impersonation from earlier as she holds her phone up in a menacing promise of what could be. Nadine lunges for her once more, catching the edge of Chloe’s shirt in her hand and barely keeping her sock-clad feet from slipping on the hardwood floor. Chloe, however, does trip in her haste to get away, catching herself on her forearms and attempting to crawl away under the table. But it’s too late, and Nadine already has the opening she needs to get the upper hand.

Grabbing Chloe by her ankle, she drags the thief out from under the table and continues to pull her all the way back to the couch. Chloe shrieks, scrabbling desperately at the floor, table, chair legs, anything to halt her backward movement or get the dark-skinned woman to let go.

“Nadi--heen!”

Nadine hoists her high and throws her back onto the couch, launching a full-scale assault on her stomach and sides as Chloe’s laughter peels and echoes cacophonously over the ceiling and walls.

“Had enough, Chlo?”

“Ye-he-hesss! Stop! Oh my god!”

Nadine complies and halts her attack on Chloe’s body, snatching the phone out of her partner’s limp hand and placing it on the floor with more care than required. Slowly Chloe’s giggling and rapid breathing subside into sighs. Her arm falls to cover her face in exhaustion, and the only word that comes to Nadine’s mind is that which the other woman usually uses to describe her.

“You’re adorable.”

“Glad you think so, love.”

With a tenderness Nadine reserves only for her, the younger woman carefully moves Chloe’s arm away from her face to re-introduce her lips with hers. Soon their breathing accelerates for an entirely different reason than before, and Chloe finds herself sinking into and melding with the weight of the body on top of hers. She grips Nadine’s shoulders like a lifeline, and wraps her limbs around the other woman’s sturdy frame, as Nadine continues to lavish her lips, face, and neck with the attention she’s been craving for far too long.

After a thorough and deeply satisfying make-out session, Chloe reaches for her phone and realizes she’s missed several texts from Elena. Deflecting several warning glances from the woman that just made her feel like putty in her britches, Chloe reassures her that it’s not what she thinks.

“Besides, I’d much rather send them one of you as a baby. Maybe the one with your cute butt fresh out the bath?”

Chloe gasps and chortles out loud when one of the couch cushions smacks her square in the face.

**Author's Note:**

> I realize we get a lot more development for Nadine in The Lost Legacy compared to Uncharted 4, but not nearly enough to satisfy my thirst for this character. This is my attempt at giving her some semblance of a back story and explain some of her idiosyncrasies throughout both games. 
> 
> I do not have an original bone in my body, so the title is heavily inspired from the Bastille song of the same name. By heavily inspired, I mean copied.
> 
> Not a lot of editing here yet, so sorry for any mistakes.


End file.
